NORFOLK, Va. — News 3 Investigates is shining a light on a type of cancer that’s having a big impact in Hampton Roads: colorectal cancer.
Portsmouth native Tommy Robinson remembers the news he got more than 30 years ago.
His doctor urged him to get a colonoscopy after he got treated for a kidney infection.
“I went and got it and it showed colon cancer,” Robinson said. “When you hear that word [cancer], it just seems like everything stops.”
For more than three decades, Dr. Bruce Waldholtz has been a gastroenterologist in Hampton Roads and has volunteered with the American Cancer Society, even serving on the ACS Cancer Action Network’s National Board of Directors.
“Once you hear the words 'You have cancer,' you don't hear anything else. It sounds like martians,” Dr. Waldholtz told News 3.
Throughout his career, his goal has been to help patients, raise awareness, and lobby for colorectal cancer resources in Hampton Roads and around the country.
“When the lights are down in the colonoscopy room, you're doing a colonoscopy and you come up to that roadblock, that mass that shouldn't be there, and everybody in that room knows that patient's life has been changed forever,” Waldholtz said. “You can't help but wonder did this have to happen that way? Could we have prevented this problem?”
Dr. Waldholtz is also getting the word out about staggering statistics related to colorectal cancer in Hampton Roads in a 2015 study by American Cancer Society researchers.
“The American Cancer Society's intramural research group identified Hampton Roads as one of the three hotspots in the United States of higher colorectal cancer risks,” Waldholtz said.
The study found three hotspots in terms of elevated death rates related to colorectal cancer.
First, there's the lower Mississippi Delta region, the largest hotspot with the highest rates, stretching across seven states.
Then, there's a hotspot in west central Appalachia, which includes parts of four states in the region.
The last hotspot is southeast Virginia and northeast North Carolina.
“Your zip code shouldn't determine if you live or not with cancer,” Waldholtz said.
News 3 asked Dr. Waldholtz why our area ranks so high when it comes to colorectal cancer.
“It involves access to care. That access to care involves poverty, socioeconomic factors, not having the physicians, and the areas where people can be screened,” Waldholtz said. “You have to have not only insurance but ideally a primary care doctor. We don't have enough primary care doctors really in the United States to achieve optimal care.”
READ: New study - Food, housing, transportation insecurity associated with cancer disparities
Of all the seven cities, Waldholtz said both Norfolk and Portsmouth rank higher in colorectal cancer rates due to socioeconomic factors.
He also told News 3, in the African American population, cancer is diagnosed at later stages and has poorer outcomes because of similar issues.
“Right now, people are being pushed in terms of, ‘Do I buy food, or do I buy medicine, or do I go to the doctor,” Waldholtz said.
So, what's being done to try and curb these numbers?
In 2018, the American Cancer Society lowered the age for those at average risk to start colorectal cancer screening from 50 to 45.
READ: “45 is the new 50” as age for colorectal cancer screening is lowered
In Hampton Roads, Waldholtz and others have helped bring in free clinics, especially at churches, for more screenings and more roundtable discussions to get the information out.
“It really is going to take, I think, reconvening our partners, reconvening the African American clergy, engaging the large employers in town, the healthcare systems, to make cancer a priority,” Waldholtz said. “As we're coming out of COVID, and realizing we need to get back to screening, we need to do what we know works. From the viewpoint of the American Cancer Society, the best screening test is a test that gets done.”
Waldholtz also hopes researchers re-do the study to if Hampton Roads is still a top-3 hotspot.
“When you have a hotspot, you increase screening,” Waldholtz said. “You would hope in a 5-7-year period, there'd be decreased incidents of colorectal cancer. But, it's really a multi-faceted approach that's needed.”
Meanwhile, Robinson, now cancer free, is helping Waldholtz spread the word to help others get tested.
“People can see me and use me for an example,” Robinson said. “It's just amazing the effect it has on different people.”
Dr. Waldholtz recommends you make sure to talk with your family doctor, especially about your family history.
You can also go to resources, like the American Cancer Society, which will tell you when you should be screened.
On Tuesday, October 25 at 9:00 a.m., Eastern Virginia Medical School (EVMS) will be hosting an American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network Virginia Cancer Research Forum.
Dr. Waldholtz told News 3 the event will feature researchers from the University of Virginia and Virginia Commonwealth University to discuss the current state of colorectal cancer in Virginia, and what providers and others can do in the state to improve screening and outreach, as well as decrease healthcare disparities.
